KDE is delighted to announce its latest set of releases, providing
major updates to KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications, and the KDE
Platform. Version 4.9 provides many new features, along with improved
stability and performance.
This release is dedicated to the memory of KDE contributor Claire
Lotion. Claire's vibrant personality and enthusiasm were an
inspiration to many in our community, and her pioneering work on the
format, scope and frequency of our developer meetings changed the way
we go about implementing our mission today. Through these and other
activities she left a notable mark on the software we are able to
release to you today, and we are grateful for and humbled by her efforts.

The KDE Quality Team was set up earlier this year with a goal to
improve the general levels of quality and stability in KDE software.
Special attention was given to identifying and fixing regressions from
previous releases. This was a top priority because it ensures
improvement with each release.
The Team also set up a more rigorous testing process for releases
starting with beta versions. New testing volunteers received training;
and several testing intensive days were held. Rather than traditional
exploratory testing, testers were assigned to focus on specific areas
that had changed since previous releases. For several critical
components, full testing checklists were developed and used. The team
found many important issues early and worked with developers to make
sure they were fixed. The Team itself reported over 160 bugs with the
beta and RC releases, many of which have now been fixed. Other beta
and RC users added considerably to the number of bugs reported. These
efforts are important because they allow developers to concentrate on
fixing issues.
As a result of the efforts of the KDE Quality Team, the 4.9 Releases
are the best ever.
One particular bugfix deserves special attention. An Okular bug
reported in 2007 had gotten nearly 1100 votes; it was important to
many users. They complained about making annotations and not being
able to save or print them. With the assistance of many commenters and
people on the Okular IRC channel, Fabio D’Urso implemented a solution
that allows Okular PDF document annotations to be saved and printed.
The fix required some work on KDE libraries and attention to overall
design to ensure that non-PDF documents worked right. This was Fabios
first KDE dev experience, which came about when he encountered the
problem and decided to do something about it.